Patriot-112: And here I am again folks, and apparently I'll be making only a few appearances in here, since I was viciously LEFT BEHIND! But I won't go into that, so, let us continue!

Disclaimer:

Chapter 8: Shifting Tides

June 1st 2014 AD/ CE 71

San Francisco, California - Alcatraz Island

"Chairman Azrael, I have good news for you. We've captured one of the Tier ones. Judging by his rather vocal objections, as well as the three dead Marines as well as the forearm-mounted sabers, we've captured Ronald Pinkerton. We're bringing him to Alcatraz now."

"Good," Murata said with a dark grin. "Get him through processing, I want to know what they know."

"Yes, sir. We'll be there in less than an hour."

Alcatraz had been heavily reinforced to resist the same attack that cost them San Francisco the first time: mines, land and sea, surrounded the island, the fortress exterior was reinforced with armor plating and, perhaps the most noteworthy, the LCAM-X02A Dominion had arrived from Lake Athabasca to make breaking him out nigh-impossible. "Sally, make sure my schedule is clear. I want to talk to Mr. Pinkerton personally."

Oahu, Hawaii

After returning from the fight, Takeshi had met up with Linda, who had been worried about him when she'd heard of the damage that his machine had taken. After spending some time together and dealing with everything that had happened, they'd begun completely redoing the plans for his machine, using the Duel Gundam Jordan had captured as a base.

"OK, let's go over everything again," Takeshi remarked after a while. "A gatling gun on the left arm for some mid-ranged firepower, claymore launchers on the shoulders for a massive close-range bombardment, a pile bunker with a revolver-style trigger mechanism on the right arm, and the head-mounted V-fins are like the Unicorn Gundam's, so they can fold up into a horn I can use to headbutt things."

"That horn will also have the same mechanisms as a Heat Blade," Linda continued, "increasing your penetration power. We'll also be increasing the armor, and hard-wiring an improved Aile Striker to it to counteract the extra weight… We're definitely going to need help from Morgenroete to get this done…"

"True," Takeshi replied. "But when it's complete, the Alteisen Duel will be one of the most powerful close-range machines out there."

Linda looked at him. "You may be emulating Kyosuke Nanbu on the battlefield now, Takeshi, but don't completely hide your emotions the way he does, alright?" she asked.

"I'll do my best," Takeshi replied, smiling. "And I'd never do that around you… I love you, Linda."

"I love you, too, Takeshi," Linda said, before the two kissed.

Meanwhile - With Jordan

"You know… this isn't exactly what I thought the Aeonite Reactor would ever be used for," said Russian scientist and engineer Anton Podolski said, as he saw the Schwarze Calamity having its Ultra Compact Battery being replaced by a different reactor. It was one of many modifications that were being made for the Calamity-type Gundam that Jordan had been designing, and now were finally underway.

"It's small enough to fit in a Mobile Suit, and if what you've told me is correct, it has more than enough juice to keep it running ten times longer than normal battery powered MS," Jordan said, now wearing an engineering jumpsuit as he looked at a tablet with the specs of the upgrades. "If this thing works, it may be the key to rescuing Ron… and acting as an edge against the EA… at least until my trump card can be built."

The Scientist shook his head. "All I can say… is be careful with that thing…" he said. "There are a lot of things we don't know about Aeonite… it caused all of this to happen..."

Jordan sighed a bit. "There was no way you could've expected this could've happened," he said, and the Russian sighed.

"We were messing with things we didn't understand… and paid the price," he said. "All I can hope for now… is that we can somehow make it right again… we can't reverse the process, that much I know for certain…"

"We need to live with the consequences, and push forward," Jordan said. "We're gonna clean up this mess… but I'll need your help with this."

WIth Tom - New Dawn

Screams of pain were heard through the bulkhead of a storage room that had a pair of bored looking guards - a male and a female, both wearing the standard Canadian BDU gear - standing outside of it. "Man, the captain's going to town on that pilot," the male of the two guards commented. "He looked pissed."

"From what I heard, the last battle didn't go all too well…" the female said with a sigh. "I heard Pinkerton got caught by the EA…"

"Damn, no wonder the Captain brought in in the acupuncture needles and car battery," the male muttered as another scream tore through the sealed bulkhead. "How much longer do you think the pilot will hold out?"

"I say… about a minute, maybe two," the female said, shrugging. "He'll get no sympathy from anyone here on the ship - especially the Captain."

The loudest scream of all was heard, followed by nothing but silence. "Only so much electricity a human body can take before it fries," the male muttered knowingly before the bulkhead opened up.

"Alcatraz Island," Tom informed as he stepped out, removing a pair of rubber gloves. "Get a clean up crew in here and have a Skyranger and Havoc Team prepped for launch."

With D.J.

D.J. was in a hotel room of the Hilton Hotel, on his laptop, looking for any new information on the status of the world. Unfortunately, he noticed that Youtube, along with Facebook, Twitter, and other public hub sites were offline, due to...'technical difficulties'.

"What a load of horseshit," he growled out, knowing it was the work of the Atlantic Federation/Blue Cosmos trying to keep a tight lid on the situation. He was thankful that Fanfiction was still online, though.

"Penny for your thoughts?,"

He turned and saw Rena standing by the door, now dressed in a Morgenroete jumpsuit.

"Just trying to find the state of the world is in," He said, "Looks like it's still going to shit. Are you feeling any better?,"

Rena nodded as she walked over and pulled a chair next to him before sitting down.

"They found your friend, I think he was called, on Alcatraz," She said, as D.J. closed the internet window, and pulled up a file on his mobile suit.

"Are you going to join them?" she asked, and D.J. sighed.

"Unfortunately, no," he said, "Since only a small rescue team is needed, Tom is enough to handle it. I'm sure they'll be fine. Besides, we need all the pilots we can spare to protect Hawaii,"

Rena nodded at that, "A good call," she said, before looking at the data that D.J. was working. "What is this you're working on?"

"Oh, it's just a side project I'm cooking up. Nothing too fancy," he said, while Rena blinked as she looked at the schematics.

"Too fancy? More like you're making the design of a whole new line of Mobile Suits," she said, while D.J. chuckled.

"Alright you got me..." he said, as the two continued to talk, while watching from the door, Daniel gave a small smile before turning around and heading down the hall.

Alcatraz Island

"Can you hear me, Mr. Pinkerton?" Ron's head jerked up at the sound of that voice.

"Muruta Azrael."

"You know my name. Surprising that you know it, and almost no resistance members do. Even if you were hanging around with the Archangel and its' ragtag band of misfits, you wouldn't know my name or my voice."

"Kiss my ass. I will tell you nothing." Ron growled in unbridled hate.

"Oh, such determination," Muruta said sardonically as he held up a syringe. "Tell me, do you know what this is, Mr. Pinkerton?"

"Truth serum. Forgoing the torture?"

"I torture you, you give me want you THINK I want to know. I use this, you tell me everything."

"You're smarter then I give you credit."

Muruta chuckled as he stepped up next to Ron and had one of the guards forcefully tilt the Canadian's head. "I do apologise for this," he informed sarcastically. "But I must know what you know, I'm sure you understand."

Ron's anger and adrenaline-fueled strength nearly broke him free, but the needle made contact with his skin and into his veins. "I will fucking kill you."

"Not until you tell me everything. Now, what do you know of me?"

"Muruta Azrael, leader of Blue Cosmos during the Bloody Valentine War, led invasion of Orb in CE 71, died during Second Battle of Jachin Due."

Muruta actually blinked in surprise. How did he know that they were planning an invasion of Orb, and that he had already decided to be the one to lead it? And on top of that, how did he know that he was going to die at Jachin Due. "How do you know this?" he asked.

"It was portrayed in the anime series Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, which aired in the year 2002." Ron answered.

"And how much do you know about… my universe?" Muruta asked.

"Everything," he answered. "Mobile suits, superweapons, warships, most characters. I have theoretical knowledge of how most of your technology works. And I'm going to kill you once I get out of this fucking chair."

Muruta laughed in response as he grinned. "Tell me, everything about these weapons you know about my universe," he demanded, ignoring Ron's threat.

"Focused plasma weapons using a magnetic jacket." One of the engineers Azrael brought with him nodded in agreement. "That's the abridged version, but he's right, for the most part."

"Is...Gundam SEED the only series?"

"It's the first of the Cosmic Era series, continued by Gundam SEED Destiny two years later. It is the 10th mainstream Gundam series, which started with Mobile suit Gundam back in 1979. Another Gundam universe I am familiar with."

An information GOLDMINE was sitting before him. "Tell me everything you know. Leave nothing out."

Oahu, Hawaii

"I understand, gentlemen, that Lieutenant Pinkerton is important to you, but he's one man. One who sacrificed himself to save this installation. You want to waste lives trying to get him back?"

"I think you are mistaken, General," Tom informed in a low voice. "I wasn't asking your permission, I was merely extending a professional courtesy by informing you my plans."

"He might have a commission in your task group, but he also has a US Navy commission. You need my permission to launch a rescue mission that involves our support. You can't get into Alcatraz as easily as we did before!"

"This is the type of mission my squad was made for," Tom pointed out. "We're to do the missions that are otherwise considered… impossible, besides, I have a question for you, what the fuck did you think would happen?" Tom's eyes flashed angrily. "Ron is a critical asset, not only for his skills, but for his knowledge, what the fuck do you think is going to happen when the EA gets ahold of the knowledge of not only the future of the SEED verse, but the weapons of mass destruction that the other era created?"

"He has THAT much knowledge?"

"And he knows how they work! That's how dangerous he is! If they find out how to use his knowledge to create N-Jammer Cancellers, we're fucked," Tom shouted. "I will say it again, General, this is not a request, I am going, and none of you are stopping me from doing so."

"...Get him out of there. Take whoever you nee-"

"General!" Three Navy men barged into the office. "Sir, request permission to launch a rescue of Lieutenant Pinkerton."

"Why? You hate him. He's an asshole."

"Yes, sir, he is. But he's our asshole. No one fucks with the Iowa and gets away with it."

"My squad will be performing a HALO drop onto Alcatraz Island," Tom informed the group. "Give us two after we leave to begin your attack."

Toolen shook his head. "If you can't get him out, you need to put him down. He might be an asset, but with his knowledge, he's also a liability."

Tom leveled a dead eyed look at the General. "You don't think I don't know that, General?" he asked in a dead voice.. "This wouldn't be the first time I've done this, and not all of them have been rescued."

"Just...go."

Alcatraz Island

Muruta Azrael was close to creaming his own pants and he wouldn't care how stupid he looked. Pinkerton had given him the secrets to the Neutron Jammer Canceller, as well as the basics of Minovsky-Ionesco reactor and beam weapons technology! "Send the hard copies to Washington now! As soon as we're done here, Mr. Pinkerton, you will be joining me on a trip to Washington, DC. You are the key to ending this war for the alliance."

"I'd be grateful for an Alliance victory."

Azrael grinned.

"But only if Blue Cosmos wasn't involved with them. You and those fucks from LOGOS turned the Alliance into an axis of hate and greed."

Azrael narrowed his eyes angrily at Ron. "You're a fucking Patchwork lover, aren't you?" he asked scornfully. "They are scum on this blue and pure world, and must be eliminated."

"You're a racist fuck. Genetic engineering or not, their base genetic code is human. You and others like you are just too stupid to realize it. You and Zala share your racist stupidity. Maybe you'll be good friends."

Azrael scowled before backhanding him. "You're a bit older than most of the recruits, but I think you'd benefit from a few days within one of our Lodonia outposts," he informed with a haughty smile. "That should help you see my side of things."

"Fuck. You." One of the technicians put an electric diode to his temple, then began shocking him.

"We use this to break the more… resistant ones. You WILL serve the Alliance." Ron's screams were louder than any before or since in the Rock.

20 kilometers from Alcatraz Island

A single VTOL get soared through the air, gaining altitude as it moved closer and closer to Alcatraz. "Gentlemen, our mission is simple," Tom informed, clad in an airtight, lightly armored HALO drop suit. "Rescue Pinkerton, and sabotage anything we can. If rescue is not an option, then we are to eliminate Pinkerton to deny the enemy any information he has that he hasn't given up yet."

"What's our exit strategy?" the squad medic, nicknamed Missionary, questioned.

"We make our own," Tom replied bluntly. "This is by all rights a suicide mission, but, those are our bread and butter."

"Five minutes out!" the pilot shouted over the roar of the engines. "Avro Arrow drones are two minutes out from Alcatraz and should now be drawing their attention!"

"You heard the man, get ready to drop!" Tom shouted out as he stood up. "Havocs, how do we drop?"

"HEAD FIRST!"

"Then let's go!"

Flak exploded around the VTOL, making it highly dangerous for the Havocs. "MOVE!"

"Chairman, the intel is on its' way to Washington as I speak. The prison is also under attack, likely by Tier 1 asset Tom Johnston."

"Well, Mr. Pinkerton, the information in your head must be valuable if-"

A roar of rage was heard before Ron broke out of his restraints, using the broken metal as a stabbing weapon to kill his two guards before stealing one of their 9mm handguns and shooting the Marine that just delivered the report to Azrael.

"WHAT!?" Muruta shouted out in shock. "How… how is that possible?"

Ron growled before approaching Azrael, who began backing away, but not fast enough to avoid Ron grabbing his head and beginning to beat the fuck out of him, shoving the Blue Cosmos chairman's head into the metal bars, eventually resulting in the man's skull cracking open and his brain spilling onto the floor. "You should… have fucking… KILLED ME!"

Tom grinned as his eyes dilated from the surge of adrenaline as he and his team free fell through the Flak, even as a squad of five Avro Arrow drones streaked through the air, taking potshots at the assorted defenders and defensive emplacements. "Open 'chutes at the last possible second!" he shouted over the radio to his squad. "You know your objectives!"

Dozens of OMNI Enforcer Marines fired at the CSTG squad, but three of them went down, making them refocus their fire inside the prison.

'Heh, looks like Ron's making his own escape,' Tom thought as opened his chute, causing his entire body to jerk violently before he drifted and hit the chute release, dropping onto the ground with a roll his G36K/C assault rifle with AGOC attachment at the ready before firing at the approaching base personnel as he ducked into cover. "Pinkerton!" Tom shouted out. "You alive you suicidal dick!?"

His answer was a roar as Ron's clearly highly enraged form charged a Marine and bashed him into a Dagger's leg, before breaking his skull open. Tom met Ron's gaze, which was now blood red before Ron ran to one of the Mobile Suits in the courtyard: a modified GAT-X105 Strike with an Aile Pack just like Ron's modified version. In fact, Ryu would bet it WAS Ron's Aile Pack.

"Pinkerton! The U.S fleet is coming in, destroy any defenses you can!" Tom shouted out desperately. "Squad, we're securing their command center!"

The Strike took off, then began firing at anything and EVERYTHING. His rage-induced state was good for making him less focused on survival and more on killing everything. "Havoc Squad, this is Iowa: we're seeing a Strike in the air, firing inside the prison. Orders?"

"Maintain your distance Iowa!" Ryu shouted over the radio. "Ron's gone berserk! Focus fire on any defenses that will impede the Fleet!"

"Sir, we're picking up a ship on approach, bearing 090, Angels 15.6. Configuration… Oh my God. It looks like the Archangel." And THAT had to be the Dominion. Taking Alcatraz was no longer an option.

Tom cursed. "Plant C4 on anything that explodes," he ordered to his squad. "I'll secure our transport!"

Ron's mind was corrupted to a degree. Blue Cosmos' brainwashing would not have worked entirely, but it would have made him their personally hyperlethal attack dog given a few months of treatment. He focused on attacking the prison, destroying everything he could to support what his drug and warped mind called his friends. "Strike A01D, this is Lieutenant Commander Badgiruel of the Earth Alliance assault carrier Dominion. Why are you firing inside the prison?"

"FUCK YOU ALL!" Ron screamed on all channels, as he went on a solo attack on the Dominion, slicing and dicing any Alliance MS which came between him and the ship.

The Dominion opened fire on the Strike, but as most people would know, an MS can and will avoid most defenses, as Ron shot past the Dominion's AA guns, firing at the thrusters, making the ship drop like a rock, just before she fired her Gottfrieds at Alcatraz.

"OH THIS IS BULLSHIT!" Tom shouted as he punched the thrusters for the VTOL he and his squad hijacked to get it away from the island. "Pinkerton, I am hereby ordering a retreat, I repeat, PULL BACK!"

Ron ignored him until a beam shot past his new machine. The GAT-X10X machines, likely piloted by the Stargazer assholes. If his machine wasn't running on empty, he would've engaged and killed them. "Archangel. Where."

Tom let out a sigh. "Southeast of our current location," he informed.

He turned the machine toward the southeast, heading for the ship. "They know. Everything."

Tom cursed in response before letting out a sigh. "At least you're alive," he informed. "Sorry I wasn't here sooner."

Ron did not reply.

LCAM-X01A Archangel

"They got him out?" Murrue asked.

Kira nodded. "I don't know why Mr Pinkerton is so important, but I wouldn't leave anyone for Blue Cosmos to torture," he said.

"Prepare to receive them then," Murrue said, "And get a Medical team ready… we have no idea what Mr. Pinkerton has been through; it's best to be ready for anything."

"Mobile Suit inbound, OMNI Enforcer IFF. It's escorting the VTOL in."

"He must've hijacked a Mobile Suit during the escape. Kira, get down to the hanger: Just in case their mission failed and this is some elaborate ruse."

"The Freedom might be the only Mobile Suit that can take the Strike down. I understand."

"Archangel, this is Captain Thomas Johnston of the CSTG, we have rescued Lieutenant Pinkerton," Tom informed over the radio. "We are currently using captured Earth Alliance vehicles, please allow us to land."

"Permission granted, Captain. Nice work."

"Keep the hangar clear," Tom warned. "Lieutenant Pinkerton is currently in an unsound mental state. Let us ensure his safety before sending anyone in."

"Define 'unstable'."

"He caved someone's fucking skull open and attacked your black-n-red clone! That's how I define 'unstable'!"

"...Duly noted. Port side hanger opening. You're clear to land."

"Understood," Tom confirmed as they landed. "Squad, be ready to bring Ron down should he attack. If possible, try to stick to non-lethal, but, considering the circumstance, I understand that lethal may be needed."

"Sir, that guy charged a full platoon of Alliance Marines and killed one of them with his bare hands. I think we're going to need tasers just to keep him on the ground."

The VTOL landed on the deck, followed by the thud of the Strike. Kira and several other deckhands approached the Strike before Ron made his way out, his irises still blood red from rage.

"GET BACK!" Tom roared as he charged forward, ditching his helmet as he tackled Ron's flank.

The 22 year old threw him off, making him collide with the Strike before he focused his gaze on Kira, charging with a roar that made a wild animal look cuddly. "YOU WILL FUCKING DIE, YOU FUCKING COWARD!"

*CRACK*

Ron stumbled, his eyes wide as blood spurted from the back of his knee, Tom getting up from his position, even as his pistol still smoked from the shot. "Pin him down!" he ordered.

Ron, knee damage or not, continued forward before Marines tackled him and pinned him to the deck before he was shot with tasers, shocking the enraged Canadian into unconsciousness. Kira looked at Ryu, his gaze practically demanding answers.

"Not quite certain what happened to him," Tom admitted as he walked towards Ron and pried an eye open. "But, If I were to guess, Blue Cosmos attempted to brainwash him."

"Uh...should I worry about making him any angrier than he already is?"

"I don't think he can GET any angrier."

Oahu, Hawaii

Jordan sighed in relief after hearing the news that Ron was safe and en-route back to Hawaii with the Archangel.

'Of course, we're not out of the woods yet...' Jordan thought, as he looked at the Schwarze Calamity - having now been reassembled after the upgrades had been completed. He had taken a few elements from the Perfect Strike, making the new unit a hybrid between all three of the Calamity packs in one. It was bustling with weapons, all without sacrificing performance. The largest issue was initially power, but the Aeonite reactor was proving to be more than enough energy to keep the machine operating at full capacity, and then some.

GAT-X132S Schwarze Calamity Gundam Sieg, that was what he called this latest reincarnation of his machine.

"I must admit… it sure as hell looks scary enough." Anton said, nodding in appreciation to the machine.

"Mr Tackett, call from the Archangel: it's Captain Johnston."

"Ok, I'll take it in my cockpit: test the communications system while I'm at it." Jordan said as he climbed into the cockpit, and activated the comm. "Tackett here."

"Hey, Jordan," a tired Tom greeted as the comm system came online. "We got Ron, but there's a glitch."

"What is it?"

"The Alliance knows everything."

Jordan froze. "What?"

"Ron wasn't clear on it, but he said they know everything. That probably means they've got everything Ron knows about Gundam technology. And you probably know how much he knows."

"They couldn't have gotten that much," Jordan said. "Gundam is a BIG series, worst comes he only informed them on SEED's events… still not good though. I think it's safe to say we should be expecting another EA attack… only this time they'll actually assault the islands."

"He wasn't specific, but we couldn't get anything beyond that. He went a little insane. We'll have to wait to find out when he gets back up."

"Let's hope it's not too bad…" Jordan said with a sigh. "My machine is almost ready for deployment again… may be our trump card if worse comes to worse. I'll inform the General… we need to get ready for the invasion."

LCAM-X01A Archangel

"When I said everything, I meant it."

"You were only in that facility for 18 hours."

"Ryu, I might not seem like it, but I can be a real chatterbox when I have a lot to say. And I was injected with a lot of drugs, including truth serum. They know everything I know."

Ryu sighed. "When you say everything, do you mean everything on SEED, or everything about Gundam in general?" he asked.

"I know I told him everything 'bout SEED," Ron said. "It… gets fuzzy after a while. But I know what I said… I told them everything Ryu... "

Tom sighed in response as he rubbed his forehead, sitting next to the bed that Ron was currently recuperating in in the Archangel's Medical Bay. "It's bad, but… it can be recoverable," he informed. "Granted Djibril having that data is bad, but knowing him, he'll keep it close to his chest."

"Not for long. He'll use whatever he can spin as Alliance Intelligence's prize."

Meanwhile - Somewhere in North America

"So, ZAFT has been building a super weapon all along…" one of many figures on multiple TV screens said, as Djibril sat in his chair, gently stroking his cat.

"Yes… the GENESIS Weapon… truly frightening to see the Coordinators were able to build this…" Djibril mused.

"We need to act now!" an Earth Forces General demanded. "If what this intel says is true, we can't let ZAFT finish this weapon - "

"Calm yourselves," Djibril said calmly. "It will take some time before ZAFT's little wonder weapon to be completed… if we are to successfully destroy it, we will need nuclear weapons… now that we have a good general idea on how to create N-Jammer Cancellers, we can soon bring our nuclear arsenal to bear against GENESIS, and end the energy crisis of Earth. We cannot act too rashly on this information, lest ZAFT discovers what we know now."

"How did we get this intel to begin with?" a Blue Cosmos representative asked.

"A member of the local resistance from the other universe," he said. "Somehow, he knows everything about our universe. And I'm taking advantage of the knowledge we have gained."

"And how exactly does he know everything about our universe?" the General asked.

"This… unfortunately, was something Muruta was unable to provide before his… demise," Djibril said. "All that I can confirm, is that so far it seems the information he has gathered is genuine. It will be in our best interests to attempt to recapture Pinkerton to find more information. I believe another more… aggressive assault on Hawaii is in order. Not a simple snatch-and-grab op like before."

"The fleet will be prepared within the week," an Admiral said. "Attacking Hawaii may mean we must delay our attack at Orb further however, as well as our push further into the Japanese islands."

"What else did we get from this Pinkerton before he made his escape?"

"Working knowledge of a helium-3-based reactor… that is N-Jammer proof. As well as beam weapons technology that is based on it. It will take time to create the prototypes… but it will be time WELL spent. Perhaps before we kill him, we will give that glorious son of a bitch the treatment he deserves: his rightful place as the man who granted us our victory over the Coordinators! FOR THE PRESERVATION OF OUR BLUE AND PURE WORLD!"

"FOR THE PRESERVATION OF OUR BLUE AND PURE WORLD!"

LCAM-X01A Archangel

"Blue Cosmos will be targeting Ron again." D.J. said as he rubbed his head to alleviate the headache he was having, "They know that he knows a LOT of information on technical designs, and they've got his soccer ball cockpit system."

"Captain Johnston, Lieutenant Pinkerton can't be that important. Before this happened, he was an unemployed high school dropout: he said so himself." Said Murrue, but then saw the frowns on the two just get deeper..

Tom looked at Jordan. "They need to know. We can't keep them in the dark."

Jordan let out a long sigh. "I had… hoped we wouldn't need to tell them for a bit longer… at least until we reached Orb..." he said, causing Murrue to raise an eyebrow.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Captain… if you would please, I would like to have a private meeting with you, La Flaga, Kira, Athrun, and Cagalli," Jordan said. "There is something we've been keeping from you all… and it's time we told you."

Murrue stood up, activating the intercom. "Commander La Flaga, Kira, Mr. Zala and Lady Cagalli, please meet me in my quarters."

"Time for the big reveal," Jordan said with a sigh, as he and Tom headed for Murrue's quarters. "At least I came prepared somewhat… I've got all of SEED on my Iphone."

"Should we get Ron?" Tom asked, "He's the reason we're doing this."

"We should let him rest for now," Jordan said. "He's been through a lot, and he's gonna need all the rest he can get for when the EA come knocking again."

"I would rather Mr. Pinkerton explain why he's become the harbinger of our doom."

"Later, when he can walk." said Jordan. in a tone that brokered no argument.

They arrived at her quarters a few minutes later, where the others were already waiting. "What is it, Captain?" Mu asked.

"Mr Tackett wants to tell us something." Murrue answered, "Go ahead."

Jordan sighed as he pulled out his Iphone. "Alright everyone… what I am about to tell you may sound bat-shit insane… but I swear this is the absolute truth… the truth is… we haven't been 100% honest with you guys… when it comes to our knowledge of your universe."

"What are you talking about?"

Jordan tapped the screen a few times, bringing up an episode of Gundam SEED: the very first episode. Needless to say, when everyone saw drawn versions of themselves doing EXACTLY what they did months before, it was unnerving, to say the least.

"Wha… what the hell was that?!" Cagalli shouted.

"In our universe… the Cosmic Era, ZAFT, the EA, Orb… all of you, were created as part of a Japanese Anime made by Sunrise and Madmen Entertainment," Jordan said with a sigh. "It's how myself, Tom, Ron, and everyone else knows so much about piloting MS without ever being inside one."

"And… the Alliance knows this now?" Murrue asked.

"And more," Ryu said. "Ron knows a LOT about how your technology works. It's all theory, but-"

"If even half of it actually pans out, at least for the Cosmic Era, the Alliance will get a gigantic advantage over us and ZAFT," Jordan finished. "And it's not just the Cosmic Era… you see, your series - Gundam SEED - is just among the more recent animes of the Gundam Franchise which spans multiple different universes similar to yours. Universal Century, Future Century, After Colony, After War, Anno Domini, and Advance Generation. Each universe has rather… unique technology and concepts, including MS power sources which easily surpasses Ultracompact Batteries… and Super Weapons that make Alliance Nukes look like popguns."

"For Example…" Ryu said, glancing at Athrun. "Athrun's Father is currently building the GENESIS Super Weapon - a massive Gamma Ray weapon which could sterilize the earth of all life."

"What?!" Athrun shouted.

"Oh my God. Are they INSANE?!" Mu shouted. "There's over 12 billion people on Earth!"

"Patrick Zala has pulled a Khan Noonien Singh out of his ass." All eyes turned to the door, where they saw Ron begin helped in by Tanner and Dylan. "After the Alliance nuked Junius Seven, killing his wife in the process, he lost his mind. Just like Khan after his wife died on Ceti Alpha 5. All he wants is to kill the assholes that killed his wife. Kinda like me, but taken to an extreme that even I won't go: I want Blue Cosmos dead, not every single human being. Then there's Rau le Creuset. Fucking clone."

"Wait, what?!" Mu asked. "He's a clone?!"

"Yup," Jordan said. "And he's a Clone of your father - Al Da Flaga. That's why your spacial awareness always picks him up."

"My… wha?!" Mu said, utterly confused "How… wha "

"I won't go too deep into details, but basically your Father wanted to become immortal in a way," Jordan elaborated. "So he commissioned one Ulen Hibiki to create clones of him to do so, gave them shortened telomeres allowing him to age quicker to reach Mu's age. Now he has to take drugs just to stabilize the aging process, otherwise he feels intense pain."

"But that's not the worst of it though," Jordan continued. "Rau may be a ZAFT Commander… but he holds no true allegiance towards them. Hell, he doesn't hold allegiance to his own species. Because of what he went through under your Father's care, he has come under the impression that our world is a 'world of endless desires', and that neither Naturals or Coordinators were fit to live. He's been manipulating the war behind the scenes to accomplish his goal… of exterminating humanity."

"That's insane!" Murrue shouted, "How could he-"

"GENESIS and Nukes, Captain," Jordan said. "He has been manipulating Patrick Zala to create GENESIS to destroy the Earth. In hatred, the EA will then nuke the PLANT's, thus bringing an end to humanity. He leaked the info about Operation: Splitbreak to the EA so they could build the CYCLOPS under JOSH-A, he is the one who killed Ulen Hibiki, his wife, and your Father. "

"Rau is a Monster. He has no sense of sympathy for the lives of the men he commands or Humanity in general," Jordan said with a growl. "He believes humans are selfish creatures… willing to do anything to 'get ahead', using his own existence as a clone of Al Da Flagga to justify that claim - a living example of human hubris. He believes humanity is destined to wipe itself out… he's just not willing to wait."

"If what you're saying is true, then we need to stop him!" Cagalli shouted, "He's still here-"

"We can't do anything about him… yet," Jordan said. "We need him alive if we want to secure an alliance with ZAFT - and we need ZAFT if we're going to mount an effective resistance against the Earth Forces. But mark my words… if anyone is going to be killing Rau… it's going to be me. Once the alliance between us and ZAFT is secured… I'll take care of him personally."

"We still don't know what you gave the Alliance."

"The basics for making NJCs and the beginnings of Minovsky physics are definite."

"WHAT?!" Jordan shouted. "Do you know how much damage they can do with Minovsky beam weapons?!"

Ron glowered at Jordan. "I know exactly how much damage they can do." He said, "The level they would be at if they started right now would be early 0065: not enough for E-cap beam rifles or cannons. But I did give them enough for some of the more… lethal beam weapons, like the hip cannons of the F91."

Jordan groaned, as he held the bridge of his nose for a moment. "It's not that bad… it could be worse," he said. "You didn't give them GN Particle Physics, which would've been a nightmare. And it will take them time to actually build prototypes of what you gave them. But we need to find ways to even the odds… but for now, we need to focus on when the EA makes their next push on Hawaii - this time it's going to be an actual invasion, not an oversized snatch-and-grab operation."

"We might need to call in some more help from Orb, then," Takeshi remarked as he walked in, Linda at his side. "Or at least Morgenroete - I've got some ideas for that Duel Gundam you captured, Jordan, but for them to be workable, especially workable before the next EA Assault gets here, we'll need Morgenroete's help."

"Get me a fucking wrench and enough codine to kill an elephant: I've got work to do!" Ron said.

"You are in no shape to be even out of bed, Lieutenant, let alone-" Cagalli began to protest only to receive a glare from the temperamental Canadian.

"Zip it, Athha! If I'm going to die, I'll work myself to death before I lay down and LET someone kill me!" He shouted.

Takeshi sighed. "I'll talk to Murdoch about some of my ideas - see if we can get some preliminary work done now, but we'll need Erica Simmons' help from Morgenroete if we're going to get the upgrades done completely, and turn that Duel into what I'm calling the Alteisen Duel."

"He'll be fine Cagalli," Jordan said, nodding. "He needs something to do anyways - keep his strength up. Ron isn't the guy to just sit around and do nothing when shit needs to get done."

"I can see that, but… codine?" Cagalli asked.

"He can't swallow pills," Dylan said.

"Always had that problem, from what he's told us," Ryu said.

"So you need liquid painkillers."

"Or a pill-crusher and a hot, sweet drink."

Murrue shook her head. "You are a VERY odd man, Lieutenant," she said.

"I'm probably the only local here who knows how most of your shit works and I'm autistic," Ron said. "That should scare you."

"It does," Murrue said. "You're dismissed… and thank you for sharing this information with us."

Tom let out a sigh as he stood up from the console he was leaning against. "I need to get into touch with Canadian Command," he informed. "Going ask them for some reinforcements along with some Arrow Drones and Mk IIs."

Jordan nodded at that, "Do it," he said, before the small intercom sounded on Murrue's desk and she pressed the butto

"Yes?" Murrue asked.

"Captain, a message from Hawaii...um, it reads: Why the hell did you guys leave me behind? signed D.J." That caused Jordan and the others to groan.

"Oh man, he's NOT gonna be happy when we get back."

US/Mexican border

"That is just WRONG." The sight of over fifty skinned bodies, all OMNI Enforcer Army, was enough to make some of the more squeamish members of the platoon actually puke. "This was the convoy we lost a week ago. Fucking cartels are ambushing us using US military hardware."

"Where the fuck did they get it?"

"We're fucking them up all over the planet. Where do you think?"

"But… how are they able to succeed with such outdated technology?" one of the recruits questioned, carefully avoiding looking at the pile of bodies directly.

"They know the lay of the land better than we do. Well, that's going to change. Command's sending in a few modified tanks. We're going to burn them out."

"Sir?"

"Ever heard of the Churchill Crocodile? It was a flamethrower tank. Same premise."

The recruit gulped nervously in response. "I see," he responded finally.

"We're going to use the tanks to burn these criminals out of their holes. Something those 'law enforcement agencies' don't have the stomach for." While brutal, it WAS effective. And it would work wonders for scaring them into surrender if their buddies were all burnt corpses beyond recognition.

"Do we know where they are?" the recruit questioned. "Or how to find them?"

"That's what we're doing, Private: we're going to find the local hidey-hole. Then the tanks are going to torch it." As soon as that was said, bullets started flying in their general direction. "Goddamn it, take cover and return fire!"

"Well, looks like we found it!" The Private shouted as they ducked for cover. "Should we call the tanks in now?"

"They won't be here for another week! Get the Spearheads to start napalming these assholes! Command wants these criminals neutralized!" These guys weren't police officers who wanted arrests. These were OMNI Enforcer soldiers, who were just going to kill the resistance members that actively shot at them. "Spearhead 1-3 to Ground team: ETA is 2 minutes. Hold them off and they'll burn alive."

"Copy Spearhead, bring the rain on these assholes!" The Private said on the Radio.

Three Spearheads flew overhead, dropping napalm bombs that burned anyway anything that was flamable: plants, animals, people. Screams in spanish were music to their ears as they exited cover. "How'd you like that, you criminal scum?!"

Revenge was quickly received as an RPG made its' way to their position, causing an explosion that either killed or wounded a large number of the Alliance Army members. The Corporal in charge awoke roughly fifteen minutes later, to the sight of a man wearing what was once a Mexican military uniform, which had clearly been stolen. "You Atlantic Feds… You're bad for business. Your friends didn't send a clear enough message. Maybe you will."

The Corporal growled. "You're not going to win…" he said. "The Alliance will slaughter every last one of you."

The man nodded. "Maybe. Maybe. But I know this, pendejo: we'll fucking gut as many of you as we can." He pulled out his machete. "You're next."

Oahu, Hawaii

"Lieutenant, the Strike is different than the 105 Dagger you were using! The cockpit-"

"Get that fucking soccer ball fit! We're going to be under attack within the week, and I want this machine ready for war! What about the thorium reactors?"

"Your team's machines are ready; we're just waiting on yours." Ron hobbled onward using a cane to support his weight. OMNI Enforcer had made sure the Strike could use a nuclear reactor, but fitting it was another story. And making enough for their machines was not happening: due to the stupidity of the American Nuclear Power Commission, thorium was tightly regulated to the degree that only the military had their hands on the shit. "Ryu! Where the fuck are you?!"

"Trying to make sure nothing blows the fuck up!" Tom shouted back from his position near the Reactor. "This ain't like the Batteries where you could play fucking mobile suit football without them blowing up!"

"Just get that thing fit into the Wrath! We need these machines fit with the reactors before the inevitable OMNI Enforcer invasion happens! And if I'm so fucking important to them, that's a matter of days or hours!"

"And your attitude is making me want to throw you into the deepest part of Section 5 and throw away the goddamn key!" Tom retorted back. "So excuse me for trying to make sure everything is perfect before I seal it up!"

"Not being pissy; I'm on edge to the degree that I'm thinking of flying over and rigging one of those reactors to blow over San Francisco to buy us a few days! We can't beat back that fleet with battery-powered MSs! We need nuclear power!"

"Kinda hard to do when we don't have the means for Mass Production," Tom countered as he climbed out of the Reactor Chamber for the Wrath. "Not only that, I have to oversee the goddamn arrivals of the Avro Drones and the Mk IIs! So sorry for being occupied with running an army."

The Naval Lieutenant responsible for their situation shook his head before hobbling towards Takeshi's new Duel. "Oh, God, if this is something as ridiculous as the sword thing, I swear I will throw him into the Nimitz' reactor core and seal the hatch from the outside."

Takeshi stood near the Duel. "Don't worry, Ron," he said. "This isn't quite as bad as what I was doing earlier." He turned to look up at the Duel. "It's still going to be a bit of a close-range type, but a vastly different style. About the easiest thing we'll be doing is adding more armor - like Yzak's Assault Shroud, but tied directly into the Phase Shift. We'd also added additional thrusters in the legs and hardwire an Aile Striker to it to offset the weight. Other than that, I was thinking a five-barreled gatling gun on the left arm, a pile bunker on the right, give it specialized shoulders with Claymore Launchers and even more thrusters… and I was thinking the V-Fins could be replaced with something like the Unicorn's, complete with folding up into a single horn, which we could apply Heat Blade technology to in case I need to headbutt someone."

"…I'm going to see if the Nimitz' reactor is free, because half of that shit sounds ridiculously stupid and probably doesn't even apply to real life. The horn being a heat sword that folds up? What in the fuck are you SMOKING? Or are you intentionally being an idiot?"

Takeshi sighed, before tapping a few things on a tablet. "Here, check this out," he said, passing the tablet over. "This should show you a bit what I have in mind."

Ron looked less and less impressed as the video went on. "I think you forget what type of series Gundam is. It's not a super robot franchise: it's a real robot series. We're using technology that could have been developed by us decades from now, not shit that is unrealistic."

"Hey, Alteisen is a Real-Type Robot," Takeshi replied. "The series in general is called Super Robot Wars, but it uses both Reals and Supers - aside from the Original Generation games, which use Banpresto Original Machines like the Alt, almost every SRW Game has included at least one Gundam series, at least. Anyway, like I said, the Alt is a Real-Type - which is why I'm thinking using its arsenals might work, even if we need help from Erica Simmons to pull it off."

"This machine is going to fall apart if you add all this shit to it. I'm by no means an actual engineer, but anyone with a lick of sense will tell you that the Duel was not meant for this. Even the Assault Shroud barely worked with the original Duel. You just can't go with simple, can you? This is a catastrophe waiting to happen."

"Alright, I guess I don't need to do everything on the list," Takeshi replied. "I'd at least like the Gatling Gun and the Pile Bunker, if nothing else - maybe we could replace the shoulder assemblies with spares from the Strike, and mount the Launcher Striker's shoulder assembly on both shoulders, for a little extra firepower?"

"I'll look at the blueprints, see what I can do, but you are going to have to live without some of this shit." Ron looked around the hangar. "Hawkins, get a fucking MSTR and a soccer ball over here! The Gundam-types are top priority!"

As the tech went to get what Ron requested, Takeshi said, "Thanks, Ron. The Gatling Gun should be the easiest addition - the Gundam Alex had something similar, though it was only three barrels instead of five. I admit the Pile Bunker would be a bit tricky, especially Alteisen-style, but there should be a way for it to work… and I'd bet you can find it, or if not you then Erica Simmons."

"Leave the structural shit to me. I'll figure out if the machine can even support the weight. Ramirez, get me the specs for my Dagger!"

"Why do you need your Dagger's specifications?"

"Because I might be able to use the same technique I used to reinforce the Dagger's frame for the Duel. They both use the One-Oh frame, so it should work."

The door slid open and Jessica stepped into the workspace. "Hey Ryu! What's going on?" she asked as she spotted Ryu working.

"Trying to make sure the Wrath doesn't blow up the next time I take it into a fight because of the new Reactor," Tom informed bluntly as he work on a series of connecting cables.

"Okay. Because I'm wondering when I'll get a new machine. My Dagger got trashed last time," Jessica said.

"I might be able to help with that," Tom informed. "We've got some machines and personnel being transferred in from Section Five, one of the units, is an untested mobile suit that we produced."

"Huh? A new Mobile Suit? What kind is it?" Jessica asked him.

"Transformation, high speed specced model," Tom said as he moved around to the other side of the reactor. "We based it partially off of the Daggers we captured and our Mk II Avro Arrow, but, like I said, it's untested, we don't know if it's capable of performing at the same level as the other G-Weapons or not."

"Well… What if I tested it? I need a new machine anyway," Jessica offered as she peeked around the reactor. "And what kind of weapons does it have?"

"Its primary weapon is a prototype beam rifle," Tom informed as he laid down on his back, grunting as he secured a bolt. "We basically made an Assault Rifle with beam tech, using miniature energy batteries as clips."

"I'll take it," Jessica said. "Anything's better than a Dagger." She then paused. "When will it be here?"

"'Nother hour at most," Tom called out as he moved deeper into the recently installed reactor chamber. "One thing we Canadians are proud of is the speed of our Aerial Forces."

"Thanks. I appreciate it, Ryu," Jessica said. She smiled as she backed off and turned to leave.

"Attention, Captain Johnston, Canadian Aircraft are now on approach for landing," Miriallia's voice announced over the ship's comms. "Please report to the hanger."

"Speak of the devil and he shall appear," Tom quoted as he pulled himself out. "Seal it up, it's good to go!" he announced to the Engineers.

Jessica heard the announcement. "Is that the aircraft?" she asked as she ran to follow him.

"Aircrafts," Tom corrected as they moved to the hanger proper where the doors opened up to reveal a Canadian C-130 Carrier with several escorting jets. "The Arrow Drones are the smaller jets, remotely controlled and mostly based off of the Avro Arrow with some upgrades, and the larger five are the new Avro Arrow Mk IIs, massively upgraded and without peer. They're the main reason the Canadian Military is still alive and kicking: Ultra High Speed Attack Mobile Armors."

"Wow…! That's something else," Jessica admitted as they stepped closer to the back of the plane. The door was already beginning to open as the two drew closer.

Inside was a Mobile Armor that had passing similarities to the Mk II's that were now getting situated inside of the Archangel's hanger, only it was more blocky with obvious parts of a mobile suit. "The CMF-00, Jaeger," Tom announced. "It's kept in the mobile armor form for transport and storage. Max speed: Mach 1.2."

"Wow!" Jessica murmured. "And… does the head stick out like on the Raider? That's a bit of an eyesore."

"Not really, but it is underneath the nose," Tom informed as the two walked up, pointing out the head. "Features two 50mm Autocannons on each wing, so far we could only get it going when in Mobile Armor form, a single Beam saber for melee, the Haze Prototype Beam Assault Weapon, right here…" He tapped his fist against the assault rifle. "All the Engineers involved with the project were fans of the Alien Series, so they based the rifle off of the M41A Pulse Rifle. Also, the wings of the Mobile Armor form will double as your shields, unfortunately, it was the only way we could get them to work, so you have two shields, one mounted on each arm."

"That is amazing!" Jessica remarked, a smile forming on her face. She turned to face him. "What else?"

"Well, we didn't have the tech to add in Phase-Shift at the time, so we used a Titanium-Carbonite Mix, so don't go crazy trying to absorb bullets. It can take a few, but not many, plus it's heavy, the reason for the speed drop even when compared to the original Arrow which clocked in at a max of Mach 2," Tom explained. "But, that's about it really, nothing overly fancy other than those things I mentioned."

"Thanks. I don't really know what to say other than that," the woman said. She turned to look back at it. "And I'm gonna use it well." She looked back at him.

"One last thing. Can you paint it in naval camo colors?" she added with a smirk.

Tom scratched the back of his head. "Shouldn't be too much of a problem," he admitted. "It wouldn't take too long, I suppose."

Jessica grinned. "Thanks." She then hugged him, surprising him.

Tom chuckled as he recovered from his surprise, patting her on the head. "No worries," he assured her. "Wasn't sure who I was going to get to pilot it anyways."

"So, mind if I take it for a spin once it's painted?" she asked, pulling back. "I need to get the hang of it."

Tom nodded before turning and giving a sharp whistle. "Break out the paint boys!" he called out. "We got ourselves a mobile suit to paint up!"

Pickering Nuclear Generating Station, Ontario, Canada

In the five days since they received the information from Blue Cosmos, scientists had been working around the clock working on new N-Jammer Cancelers. Ron's information on them was fairly limited, considering that Gundam SEED never went too deeply into the technical side of the NJCs, but Ron's theories (that it was a dampening field that negated the effects of the jammers in a short radius) were correct, and his theories on how it worked were correct. Making the device was not as easy as they wanted to believe. "We can't get this done. Those assholes are going to kill us."

"We have to do something." One of the scientists hit the device, causing a lot of sparks before the lights kicked in on full. "Uh, we're generating power! The Canceller works!"

"Umm… how did we do that?" another scientist questioned, leaning in to whisper to the first.

"Whoever that Pinkerton guy is, he just made our lives more interesting." The first scientist removed part of the casing, seeing what shifted out of position for the device to work. "Get a camera or something: Djibril's going to want to see this."

"Right!" another called out as he rushed off to grab one.

"I'm honestly scared of what that man will do with this," an older scientist muttered. "That war hungry man…"

Djbril looked very silly. That was because he was smiling like an absolute NUT. "It works. We have our entire weapons inventory back." The specifications for the NJCs were being sent all over Alliance-occupied territory, as well as the new makeshift-mass driver at Lake Athabasca. ZAFT no longer had the edge over them with their Mobile Suits, and now they have their nukes back. As soon as they had more than a few dozen, the 8th fleet was going to make damn sure they had space superiority. And as soon as Luna was secure, he would turn his gaze on two of the major strongholds on Earth for the resistance: Hawaii… and Orb. And he had the perfect way to make his conquest… easier.

Oahu, Hawaii

"We can't refit the Missouri the same way we refit the Iowa: the superstructure is built into the ship. We'd need to take the ship apart-" an ensign tried to say, but he was cut off by Ron.

"I don't care. Get this World War II shit out and replace it with modern equipment. I don't care if you have to lug it out piecemeal; GET IT DONE!" Ron yelled at him.

"Yes, Lieutenant!" The terrified ensign ran away from Ron, whose mood was extremely bad.

"Sir, you weren't this bad a week ago…" a petty officer remarked.

"A week ago, Petty Officer, the Alliance didn't have every scrap of technical data that is inside my head. If half the shit in my skull can be applied, they'll have nuclear capability back, and we will have no chance at defending this island."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that Ron," Tom said as he stepped up next to him.

Ron snorted. "Ryu, none of our equipment is EMP-hardened. They'll detonate a nuke in the upper atmosphere and fry everything we've got. Mobile suits, fighters: we'll be defenseless."

"Then we intercept them before they get that high," Tom counted, a smug grin on his face. "Tell me Ron, what do you think happened to the Arrow after its project was cancelled?"

"They were all scrapped. Everyone knows that," Ron said bitterly.

If possible Tom's grin became even smugger. "Section Five, one could say, is Canada's equivalent to Area 51," he informed calmly. "A massive underground complex with advance manufacturing, testing and other facilities, currently the final stronghold for the Canadian Military, also the birthplace of the reason for our survival."

"The MS and the Arrows. We still don't have anything that can intercept a missile at Angels 100: that's beyond what the Arrow, or anything, can fly at. The EMP will still fuck us."

"Arrow Drones, no, they can't fly that fast," Tom admitted. "The reason for our survival, was the Mach 7 jet fighter, Avro Arrow Mk II, it'll intercept anything before it gets to close."

The lower ranking East Canadian sighed. "Angel is pilot slang, Ryu: it's one thousand feet. Angels 100 is one hundred thousand feet. That's beyond the surface ceiling of any air-breathing craft. And spaceplanes are out of the question."

Ryu sighed, shaking his head in response. "Mk IIs are not air breathing planes, though, Ron," he informed. "Since I signed on I've been advising them on possible theatres of war, one of them being stratosphere and space. That is why we put such an emphasis on speed; the Mk II can and has reached that height consistently. You are not the only one who realizes what's going to happen, and we are not the incompetent idiots you act like we are."

"Not you. The Americans. Fucking idiots, the lot of them," Ron muttered. "The only good ones are our co-authors, it seems." He then let out a sigh. "Sorry, I'm just feeling guilty because I've practically fucked us by giving them the intel for the NJCs. They could have their nukes back within the month."

Tom reached over and smacked him sharply on the back of his head.

Ron rubbed the back of his head. "I think I needed that. Still, they will have their nukes back soon. The PLANTs, Orb, us: we are under threat. So I'm trying to get the rest of the fleet ready for the invasion. Hardening the Iowa against EMP and shit. They're coming. And it's my fault. So, yeah, I think I have the right to blame myself for giving those fuckers the keys to Pandora's box. And three months early, no less."

"I have a question," Tom announced. "Can you see the future?"

Ron shook his head. "No. But we both know they're going to launch an invasion eventually. I just want us ready sooner rather then later. We both know what those fuckers did to Orb in SEED. They could pull the same thing here, only with nukes making their job easier."

"True, but knowing Djibril, he's more concerned about space," Tom informed. "When the merge happened, I spent some time going over the episodes, basically running a psychoanalysis on the villains. Djibril basically thinks he already controls earthside simply because he is the 'most powerful', so his primary focus will be on space, most likely Luna to start with, but then moving on to the biggest threat, the PLANTs. See, with ORB, he could topple them simply through blocking the borders and when he controls space, shooting down any attempts to use their Mass Drivers, so… I'd say as of right now, we probably have… half a year to eight months to prepare, give or take."

Ron snorted. "Or less, if he's got nuclear capability. Best way to get rid of your enemies. Nuke spam."

"This isn't StarCraft," Tom pointed out.

"I know. Same principle. If the explosion doesn't kill them, the hard radiation will. And for a while, ZAFT's going to be clueless. Almost no one knows the NJCs even exist. Spam a few dozen Sledgehammers, lace one or two with nukes, detonate-" Ron was cut off by Tom.

"Bang, you're dead," he said, getting the basic idea.

Ron nodded. "And the jammers won't work."

"Still, he can't use nukes for everything," Tom commented. "Remember, the moon base is probably the closest source of Helium-3, which I am guessing he is going to want pretty bad if he has the info on original Gundam era tech. Plus, there are other resources that he's going to want to use. And for the time being, we can take advantage of our minor alliance with ZAFT to warn the PLANTs; that will cause them to go on the offensive, buying us some more time."

"I think you're forgetting someone," Ron stated.

Tom cocked an eyebrow."Who?"

"Le Creuset. Hate to say it, but Jorn should've let me kill him when I had the chance," Ron remarked acidly. "The millisecond he got involved, warning the PLANT Supreme Council of Idiocy got increasingly more difficult. Might be able to get through Lacus' channels, but Zala will disregard it out of hand: propaganda and such."

Tom chuckled. "Then why don't we make some proof they can't ignore?" he asked with a grin. "Can you make one?"

Ron looked at him like he was nuts. "I'd need time and most of my knowledge is theoretical. Besides, we have a bit of a problem with that plan."

"Problem?" Tom asked.

Ron pointed out the window, and Tom directed his gaze to… the Archangel. "The Freedom and Justice."

"If I were Zala, I'd say it was the NJC from the Freedom or the Justice. And if we take the NJC out of either machine, we'll be making our position worse, defensively."

Ryu snorted. "Who said we'd be showing it to them, or we'd be attacking?" he asked, looking at Ron with dead eyes. "What I am saying, is we should sacrifice a few, and save many."

"Let Djibril use his nukes on ZAFT targets? Well, the moment you put the uniform on, you ARE painting a target on your back and practically yelling 'shoot me'. Too bad Lacus wants to save everyone and doesn't get that," Ron muttered.

"Who said Djibril would use them?" Tom asked, his voice nearly a whisper. "Section Five has exactly 21 nuclear warheads available for use. All we need is an NJC, and to get them into place, and with the speed of our aircraft, that won't be a problem."

Ron looked at him. "We're still going to need a few standard jammers, as well as something nuclear. I'm not willing to blow myself up, so a warhead is out. Got a spare unshielded reactor handy?"

"I'm sure one will show up soon," Tom informed. "Let me know when it's ready, I'll handle the rest."

"Then I'll keep working on the Missouri's retrofit until I can get a jammer. Fucking Americans don't know how to refit their own ships to modern spec," Ron said darkly.

Tom hummed. "I don't believe I need to say this, but this conversation never happened," he called out.

Ron just walked off. "No, you don't."

Archangel Hangar

Takeshi looked at his new machine even as the techs continued their work on the upgrades.

As he'd guessed, the 5-barrel 75mm Gatling Gun was the easiest to mount, and it now adorned the left arm. The Pile Bunker was proving a bit trickier, namely in that they needed to MacGyver a few things to get it to work, but it was coming along fairly well. The left shoulder had been swapped out with a spare thing from the Strike, and now had a Launcher Striker shoulder unit with the cannons and additional Gatling Gun. The right shoulder also had been replaced with a spare from the Strike, but they were still fiddling with the second Launcher Striker shoulder unit to get it to fit. And they were also hardwiring an Aile Striker to the back for some extra thrust.

"-And in news today, power was miraculously restored to part of the Eastern Seaboard in occupied Alliance territory. President Copeland of the Atlantic Federation has stated that they have discovered and destroyed a 'Neutron Jammer', which prevented the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station from producing power from its' CANDU nuclear reactors. President Copeland has made a pledge to destroy all of the devices in North America to restore power to the rest of the continent. For CNN, I'm Samuel Burke."

Takeshi's eyes widened. "Oh, bloody frakking hell," he muttered. He then turned towards where he knew Ron was. "RON! WE HAVE A PROBLEM!"

Ron looked at Takeshi, sighing. "Yeah, yeah, I know half the shit you wanted won't work with the Duel-"

"Not THAT, you idiot."

"Then what?"

Takeshi took a remote for the nearby TV and rewound it, back to the point where they mentioned the restoring of power to the Eastern Seaboard, before starting playback again.

"And in news today, power was miraculously restored to part of the Eastern Seaboard in occupied Alliance territory. President Copeland of the Atlantic Federation has stated that they have discovered and destroyed a 'Neutron Jammer', which prevented the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station from producing power from its' CANDU nuclear reactors. President Copeland has made a pledge to destroy all of the devices in North America to restore power to the rest of the continent. For CNN, I'm Samuel Burke."

"Oh, fuck," Ron said. "They've got an NJC."

Takeshi nodded. "And the EA with an NJC is what is known as an Apocalyptically Bad Thing."

"They've got nuclear capability back. Get everyone together, NOW and tell the work crews to speed up EMP-proofing everything. We might just be on the verge of an invasion."

Tom just stared in shock. "That's impossible. It's only been six days since we got you back."

"When I said I know a lot about how SEED shit works, I meant it. They have nuclear capability back, and they're going to use every advantage that gives them," Ron stated seriously.

"Though the shows are always vague about how the NJC actually works," Takeshi remarked. "For them to have a working one this early means that, first, Ron's particular theories on that matter are correct, and second, the EA got insanely lucky in getting a working NJC built on their first go."

"And Djbiril's going to take advantage of that," the Canadian remarked.

"Excuse me, who?" Cagalli with a raised brow.

"Azrael's successor."

"But he's still alive, right?" Takeshi asked.

Ron looked at him with a deadpan expression. "Mr. Yamato, I turned Muruta Azrael's skull into something resembling broken pottery and his brain had been ripped from its' protective housing. Not even a Coordinator can survive what I did to him."

Jessica grimaced and stuck out her tongue, looking pretty green. "Yuck! That is nasty!" she remarked.

Tom's face didn't budge in the least at Ron's declaration. "Understandable, considering what happened," he commented. "Probably would have done something similar considering I always need a clean up crew after interrogation."

"Uh, TMI, there, Tom," Takeshi groaned, looking a bit queasy.

Jessica nodded, but she somehow managed to force her disgust to the side. "I… don't even wanna know right now. But aside, we do have a problem," she said at last. "And I think we need to try and figure out what to do next. I mean, we can't just wing it. We need a defensive plan that can stall them for as long as possible."

"What the fuck do you think we're doing, Titanic, sitting on our hands with our thumbs up our asses?! I've been working on getting the rest of the fleet ready for the inevitable invasion."

"What I mean is we need to figure where they may land troops and reinforce those for defense. We need to know where they may put troops ashore and deny them those locations. That's the first thing," Jessica said. "Second, we don't have numbers, but we sure as hell have an advantage in terrain on some of the islands. Like jungle. And if we get a good idea of where they may land, we can hold the high ground. Reinforce those locations with as much firepower and support as we can get and position it accordingly. Deny them the beaches and they'll be unable to put many troops ashore. Also, destroy the docks at port cities. They can't be allowed to land there either. The cities have plenty of buildings to use as high ground, and we can cover the docks accordingly." She was dead serious as she continued. "Third, I just realized something else. We have another advantage: you. They'll no doubt be after you, so that means they may have to delay their attacks on other countries. We can also see if we can ask those countries to drive back the EA as best they can, and counterattack the best they can."

Ron sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm not sure if you're trying, or if you're just an idiot. OMNI Enforcer won't act like they did in the anime. The competence level just shot up a few billion points. They will deny any advantage the terrain gives you. Project Orange will destroy foliage, just like in Vietnam, and if not that, napalm will burn your asses alive. They won't care where you are. They'll just kill you."

Jessica's eyes were hard. "Not in the cities. We have an advantage there. Also, think about Germany. In WWII, the reason they were able to hold on so long was because of the ruins left behind by bombing. Ruins tend to favor the defenders rather than the attackers," she stated. "I boned up on WWII before all this shit went down, so I do have a point on the ruins thing."

"Not quite," Tom interjected, scratching the back of his neck, not looking at either of them. "You're not factoring in the mentality of the leader, Djibril. We hunker down in some ruins, he'll just drop a nuke on us, and consider an acceptable loss of life."

"My point," Ron informed. "As long as we're dead, he doesn't care HOW he does it."

"Well, then what'll we do? Let him attack us and destroy us?!" she shouted. "We can't let this go down like this! We need to find some way to stop the invasion!" Her eyes flashed. "I don't care what you say, I'm not gonna hunker down and let him get close to any people here on this island! Especially the children! Do you even know what I witnessed on our way across the country to San Francisco!? I saw children being turned into weapons of war! No child should be a weapon of war! They need to live as human beings, not tools or products! I want to deny Djibril any chance of getting on this island, and if I have to fight them off myself, then I will!" Jessica's chest was heaving as she stood there, panting.

Tom patted Jessica's back comfortingly. "We'll stop him, not quite sure how, but we will," he informed. "If it comes down to it, I'm quite prepared to use my own life as a weapon should it be needed."

She just looked at him. "Yeah. I know. But right now, I want to try and deny him any chance of getting on this island. That's why I said what I did. I just want to try and help…" She looked down. "I guess I'm not as good a strategist as Ron is…"

"I'm only using what little psychological knowledge I have of Djibril. He's not Hitler or Stalin. He's willing to risk lives to take a city, but he's not going to fuck with us now that he knows what I know. Tier 1 priorities for him now include every major member of this crew, Lacus Clyne and just about every important person in Gundam SEED and SEED Destiny." When Ron said 'SEED Destiny', they figured out something in seconds.

"Orb…" Tom whispered.

"Shinn Asuka is a highly skilled Coordinator. Use the Extended process, he's your worst fucking nightmare. Even Kira wouldn't be able to take him down."

"And… Oh shit…!" Jessica breathed. "We'll need to get him before they do!"

"Already working on it, but… Orb is hard to get into," Tom informed. "And when the attack does happen, I'm going to make sure he's with us."

"And his family," Jessica said, her eyes becoming hard again. "He loses them, and he becomes filled with rage for the EA. Djibril could use that."

Ron nodded. "I will take care of his family personally. I've suffered that loss myself; it's not happening again."

"Huh? Wait… You're not serious! You lost your whole family?" Jessica asked, stunned.

He was dead serious. "Burned alive, crushed or shot. I assume you don't know that my town was burnt to the ground."

"Ron… I'm sorry to hear that…" she said.

He just brushed it aside. "I don't want nor need your pity. Do your fucking job for once. I have work to do." Ron left the bridge, leaving them behind.

Jessica turned back to Tom. "So… in your opinion, what are the chances of us successfully driving them off the island? I mean… I just want to help in terms of strategy… And I want Ron to see that I can be useful," she said. "And earn his recognition."

Tom sighed in response. "Our chance of success, huh?" he asked looking up. "Four out of ten, in their favor. They have the troops, the technology, and the power, but… we do have some plans that may increase our chances."

Jessica looked a bit confused. "What kind of plans?"

Tom gained a sardonic smile. "The kind that creates demons out of men," he told her bluntly. "Some of us are willing to become so if it means survival."

She blanched a bit. "You're crazy!" she cried. "What'll happen if it fails?!"

"We die," Tom admitted. "Damned if we do, damned if we don't."

"There has to be another way though! We need some kind of asset to drive them back at least! Anything to increase the odds other than what you're thinking!" she protested. "And dammit, I'm not gonna let you die just yet! We need to find a way to increase the odds otherwise as well! We need to use something that we have here, anything!" She was determined, he could see that.

"I think Mr. Pinkerton already has the right idea. We don't have the resources to take the Alliance on directly, and none of your ships are ready for combat just yet. We may have to simply hunker down, wait for them to come to us."

Jessica sighed. "All right… But if it comes down to it and we eventually face Djibril, I call dibs on him." She looked up, her eyes hard. "He's mine."

She turned and looked at Tom. "I'm gonna go out on patrol for a bit. Get an idea of where they may land. And hopefully see if anyone is coming."

Tom nodded. "Sector Five would be the best place to do your patrol. Our forces are spread too thin as it is," he informed.

She nodded. "Right. I'm on it."

Not even fifteen minutes later she was in the cockpit of her machine. "Jessica Miller, Jaeger Gundam, taking off!" she cried.

With a roar of fire and sound, the Mobile Suit streaked down the catapult and out of the ship into the air. She looked back at the ship, her eyes softening for a moment before she became serious. "Here I go!"

Her machine sped away, heading right for Sector Five… and her first fight that pushed her to her limits as a pilot.

She flew for a few minutes before she spotted the sector in question. So far things looked normal, but she couldn't be sure. Something was niggling at her brain, but she brushed it aside, not even realizing that it was telling her to be wary.

Still, she forged on, flying around the sector, looking for any sign of any enemy units.

But then her machine's radar acted up and she looked at it in shock. Was someone following her? She turned into a bank, her eyes flicking around before she finally triggered the Jaeger's transformation, turning it from Mobile Armor mode into its Mobile Suit form and landing on the ground, her hands gripping the controls hard. 'Someone's here… but who?' she thought.

She pivoted the head of her machine left and right, unaware of the incoming machine not too far off.

That is until something blasted overhead and she spun, her eyes locking onto the sky. 'Whoever's here is gonna strike soon! I can tell! But the only question is… where?' she thought as her eyes narrowed.

The last thing she expected was to see another Mobile Suit land not too far from her machine. She growled as she recognized it as the Raider. Her eyes narrowed and she clenched the controls tighter. "Dammit!" she muttered. "This guy…"

"Well look what we have here!" came the familiar voice of the infamous game junkie Clotho Buer. "Another fatality!"

Jessica gritted her teeth at the annoying phrase she heard from the show. "Well, too bad, buster! Because I'm not some mere fatality!" she snarled over the comm. She pushed the controls forward and her machine sprang into action. While she was used to piloting a Dagger by now, the new machine she was using was far more advanced and had a lot more power. She was surprised by the speed as she zipped right for him, wrenching back on the controls and forcing her machine to skid past him, one of the arms with the rifle swinging around and smacking the Raider on the back, sending it sprawling.

"Man… Gotta get used to this…" she muttered to herself.

"Damn bastard! You're terminated!" Clotho shouted as the Raider got back up and took to the air in its MA mode.

Jessica watched in shock before her eyes narrowed. "No you don't! I'm not about to die just yet!" she growled. She pulled the rifle up and aimed it, not even knowing how much power it had. But she fired anyway, the Raider twisting and turning to dodge it. The young woman's eyes widened as she saw him incoming and thinking fast, leapt back, but not enough as the force of the impact as the Raider transformed back and drove its foot into the ground was enough to send her machine sprawling.

"Hah! You must be very clumsy if your piloting skills are that bad!" Clotho mocked, but unfortunately for him, Jessica heard it.

BGM: Gundam Build Fighters Try OST: 'Allied Force'

"I… am… not… gonna… let you win!" she snarled as she struggled to her feet. "I will do whatever it takes to win!" As she said this, she felt something happening, like something was welling up… But it would take a trigger to show her real strength. Movement behind the rubble caught her eye briefly, and she saw students and children huddling behind it, watching in awe. At least they were safe for now, so she could focus on the Druggie.

"And I mean it! I won't die… not until every one of those bastard men and women who strip children of their humanity are punished!" she growled, firing off the Haze rifle once again. The beams sped out, striking the ground around the Raider, but also hitting the Mobile Suit a few times. Now she was starting to get the hang of the Jaeger.

"Gah! You bitch! I'll terminate you!" Clotho shouted at the hits to his mobile suit.

"No… you won't!" she shouted. "I won't lose! Not as long as Blue Cosmos exists!" Her eyes narrowed as she finally engaged the thrusters to her machine and jetted towards him, pulling out a beam saber and clashing swords with him. "And I will uphold that!" She swiped her machine's left foot around, and he dodged, but barely, breaking off the duel with her. But he spun around and slashed, forcing her to dodge the attack. She landed and aimed the Haze, firing it once more and prompting the Druggie Extended to block with his shield. Jessica was surprised a bit, but forced it from her mind as she ceased firing, charging back into the fray with her beam saber out.

Clotho relaunched his attack on her, but she dodged, only for the Raider's foot to swing around and connect with her machine, or at least it would have had she not reacted surprisingly quickly and brought up one of the Jaeger's arms, the wing/shield taking the blow instead of the chest. She growled as he leapt back and fired, the beams from his Mobile Suit's guns hitting the wing/shield. She kept it in front of the cockpit, aiming the Haze once more and firing again, this time hitting the Raider's left arm, but not damaging the limb to the point of disuse. At least she was doing fairly well.

As they fought though, her attention had drifted away from the number of students huddling behind rubble and debris for protection. AF soldiers were coming in to take them, and she didn't even notice that. At least Clotho shoved her machine back. Jessica landed on her feet and she was by now panting a bit. Fighting against an Extended was not what she had signed up for! He was just too strong for her… Even with her machine. So far some of the paint on her machine was scraped away, and one of the wing/shields was damaged, along with the right leg.

She took a glance over at where the students were hiding, wondering if anyone was there, and at once she saw what was happening. The sight of AtFed soldiers grabbing the children as they squirmed and screamed was enough to make her stop in shock.

Then, it happened.

Images of Lodonia that she had seen in the series came back to her. Images of the children… and memories from her trek across the country with her friends. The memories of the lab, the children being broken, and the promise she had made to her family friends.

All of it culminated in what she had never thought possible.

"No… you… DON'T!" she screamed, her eyes widening as she pivoted her machine, a hazel seed-like object falling in her mind's eye and shattering, her eyes glazing over and becoming dilated as a result. "THIS HAS GONE ON FAR TOO LONG! NO MORE CHILDREN WILL BE BROKEN AND TURNED INTO TOOLS OF WAR!"

Her mind was now on overdrive as she finally punched the throttles to full, her rage and drive letting loose in a fierce primal scream. She whipped her machine around as Clotho attacked again, but this time she grabbed his machine and threw it, swinging the Jaeger's left foot and sending the Raider stumbling back, forcing the AF soldiers to flee to avoid getting stomped on.

The sudden counter-attack surprised Clotho as he groaned from his head slamming against the top of the seat so hard.

"Shit, what the hell?" he cursed, before suddenly he felt something slam violently against the torso of his Gundam.

Jessica had kicked his machine again, but this time also backed it up with a punch from the left hand. She drew her machine's head back and slammed it into the Raider's chest once more, sending it staggering back before she leapt up using the Jaeger's thrusters and fired the Haze beam assault rifle once more, this time her shots more accurate, though not as much as she had hoped. "You bastards have no idea what you're doing!" she roared. "You're doing nothing but murdering children! You're not men at all! You're nothing but savage beasts clad in human skin! Real civilized people would never BUTCHER CHILDREN AND TURN THEM INTO WEAPONS OF WAR!"

The shots from the Haze rifle peppered the ground and the Raider transformed as it leapt into the air, charging right for her, its own weapons blazing. Jessica turned the Jaeger into Mobile Armor mode and weaved through them the best she could, but even with the boost of SEED Mode, she wasn't a full match for him. Regardless, she spun her machine around, turning it back to Mobile Suit form and aiming the Haze rifle once more, firing repeatedly at the Raider, missing as it pulled a radial G, firing again with its weapons. She flipped her machine around, replacing the rifle on her machine's back and pulling out her beam saber. She held it in both hands as she cut power, falling like a rock and screaming as she brought it down, barely nicking the Raider's armor as it sped away. Clotho swore as a result of the near miss.

He transformed back into Mobile Suit form and fired again, forcing Jessica to dodge to the right out of desperation. She punched the throttle to full, transforming back to Mobile Armor mode and firing the guns on the wings, the bullets catching Clotho off guard, but not doing much damage to his machine. A beeping caught her attention and she looked at it before growling. After all that flying and fighting, she had less than thirty percent power left. She was finally forced to withdraw to recharge, but not before shooting a glare back and speaking one last time. "This isn't over! You will feel the Burning Haze of Justice once more!" she muttered.

Archangel - Hanger

"All hands, the Jaeger is returning with damage, engineer teams please stand by!" Miriallia announced over the ship comm system.

"Never a dull moment," Tom muttered as he looked up from where they were making adjustments to Takeshi's Mobile Suit. "You heard the lady! Let's get a move on!"

The battered Mobile Suit touched down, the right leg finally giving way. The Gundam sort of fell into a kneeling position and the cockpit opened, Jessica descending the cable a bit shakily. Once on the ground though, she fell to her hands and knees, panting heavily.

"Get to work on the Jaeger!" Tom shouted out as he knelt next to Jessica. "MEDIC, get over here! You alright, Jessica?"

Jessica nodded, looking up. Sweat streaked her face, but other than that, along with a few scrapes, she was okay. "Yeah… I… I'm fine. Just wiped out…" she rasped.

Tom nodded as the medic came up to her and quickly checked her over before saying she was fine. "C'mon, where's your room at?" he asked. "You need sleep."

"Just down the hall… Thought it better to be near the hangar for emergency deployment…" she said as she staggered to her feet. "And I'm fine… Just tired from the fight." She was regaining her strength at least. "By the way, during that fight, something weird happened…"

"What's that?" Tom asked as he grabbed her arm and slung it over his shoulder to support her.

"I… I can't really explain it… but…" Jessica raised a hand to her head. "I… During the battle, at one point, it seemed like everything was so much clearer… and I thought I saw something explode in my mind's eye before that happened." She looked at him as he helped her down the hall. "What was it?"

Tom frowned in thought as they walked. "Odd… that's for sure… unless…" he muttered. "You don't think, that… you've developed a SEED?"

"Huh?" Jessica looked at him. "You… You think so? Because it happened right when I saw AF soldiers going after a bunch of kids. I…" She looked down. "I remembered the things I had seen on our way over here. The lab… and Lodonia… I saw that from the show… And then, it just… this object that looked like a SEED fell and shattered. Then, I was able to survive against an Extended." She looked back at him. "And after that, I said something, I don't remember what, but one part sticks out to me. 'The Burning Haze of Justice.'"

"Odd," Tom commented with a confused look. "But… it might have been your 'trigger' so to speak that allowed you to awaken your SEED mode."

"Yeah. Maybe," Jessica said. "And the phrase Burning Haze of Justice… I think that seems to fit since I wanted to burn a path right to those bastards who wanted those kids." She then looked back at him. "Maybe that's meant to be my nickname."

Tom snorted in response. "I can think of worst ones," he informed jokingly as they came up to her room. "Actually, it's good you came back when you did, I got some info to share with you."

"What?" Jessica asked as she removed her arm from around his shoulders. She swayed a bit, but steadied herself quickly.

"We have a lead," he informed bluntly, ensuring the door was firmly shut. "A remote base for Lodonia in Central America."

Her eyes widened. "You mean… you found him?" she asked. "Our family friend's son?"

"Maybe, all we know is that this was where he was initially taken, a lot of children in North and South America were taken to this lab," Ryu informed. "I have a team being assembled and we're leaving tomorrow morning, no mobile suits, do you wish to come?"

"I…" She looked down, hesitant. "I… I just don't really know right now. But… still, I'm coming, even if I'm unsure." She looked up, resolve in her eyes. "And thanks, Ryu. I appreciate everything." A smile crossed her face. "And I mean it, too."

Ryu returned the smirk, placing a kind hand on her shoulder. "No worries," he informed. "Meet me on the New Dawn at 0500 tomorrow morning, I'll get you outfitted for the mission before we leave."

Jessica grinned back. "As long as I can bring my machine for backup if needed. Which I hope it won't come to," she said, growing serious. She then placed a hand on his. "I just hope that one day, we can return those poor kids to normal… and get those bastards to see that children are the next generation, not weapons of war…" she murmured.

"You're going to have to fly under the radar," he told her. "And we're going to be infiltrating before any attacks begin."

"I will. And thanks for letting me come. I appreciate it." She removed her hand and turned, heading back into her room. "I'll see you tomorrow morning then." She smiled and closed the door, remembering the feel of his hand on her shoulder…

Meanwhile – Lagrange Point 2

While the Earth was currently falling apart because of the chaos caused by the merging, unknown to either the 'Locals', the EA, ZAFT, or any of the major factions, something was happening in Lagrange Point 2. A sphere of energy - not unlike the one which initially caused the fusion of worlds in the first place - briefly appeared near the dark side of Luna. However, as soon as it appeared, it quickly vanished.

However, in its place, a single space colony which looked like a hybrid between an Island 1 Stanford Torus-type colony and an O'Neill Island 3 cylinder appeared. Surrounding the colony was a large fleet of vessels, each colored dark green or crimson red, while appearing not to far from it was another fleet, this one with vessels more white, grey or sage in color.

One of the vessels was a large vessel, over 400 meters in length, with a red coloring, but a large golden emblem on the front of its hull, and written along the side was its hull number and name: 'BB-40 ZSS Asaram'.

On the bridge of this vessel, a middle-aged woman with shoulder length purple hair and green eyes struggled back to her feet, shaking her head as she dusted off her black uniform. "Report!" she announced, as the rest of the bridge crew came too. "What the hell just happened!"

"Ma'am… I don't know," one of the operators said, wearing sets of dark green uniforms said. "There was a light, and then… what the… Admiral ma'am… we're at L2!"

"What?" the Admiral asked, looking out the front screen, showing indeed they were at L2. "How is that possible? We were at L4 a moment ago!"

"Unknown ma'am, but all ships are accounted for, as is the Laputa colony." The Operator said, "Wait… ma'am… I can't detect Side 3 anywhere."

"Impossible, if we're at L2 we should be right up next to Munzo!" A second operator said.

"I'm looking, and they're not there!" the first Operator said. "Wait, Ma'am, we're picking up Federation ID's - it's the same fleet as before, but… they're drifting."

The Admiral hummed in thought, as she thought what to do. She could easily destroy the ships… but she wasn't a stone-cold killer, and wouldn't fight them if they couldn't fight back. It would be unfair. "Hail the flagship of the fleet," she said. "We shall offer them assistance."

"Ma'am?" one of the crewmen asked in surprise, as the rest of the bridge crew looked in surprise as well. "We're helping the Feddies?"

"Something's not right here…" the woman said with her eyes narrowed, "Side 3 isn't where its suppose to be, we just 'magically' ended up here in a flash of light… I've got a bad feeling about this. Contact the Federation Fleet… we may need their help."

The officer sighed, but did as commanded as he patched them through. "Channel is open ma'am."

"This is Fleet Admiral Christa Karn, of the Zeon battleship Asarum," she spoke out. "To the Federation fleet, we are willing to offer you assistance if you require it. "

There was a long pause, before a few moments passed and the front screen displayed the bridge of a Pegasus-class Mobile Assault Carrier, and a man in a Federation space suit sitting in the command chair. "This is Admiral Wolfgang Watkein of the Federation Warship Ikaros," the man said. "Thank you for your offer… considering what we have discovered… we must accept."

Christa rose an eyebrow at that. "And what is it that you have discovered?" she asked.

"We've lost all communications with the Earth Federation - and I mean everything," the Admiral said. "Not the fleet, not Earth… nothing. Its as if they aren't even there. And since we are at Side 3 and there's not a trace of Munzo… something is very wrong here."

Christa began to feel a chill go up her spine, before she turned to one of the Operators.

"Contact the Kuznetsov, at once!" she ordered and the Operator did as ordered and the image of a man in his 30's.

"Admiral, what the hell's going on?" the man asked in a slight Russian accent.

"I wish I knew, Captain Berezin," said Christa. "But once we get things situated, I need you to prepare your ship for a recon mission and scout out the moon. If you see anything out of the ordinary, report back immediately."

"Understood, ma'am." The man said, before he saluted. "Sieg Zeon."

"Sieg Zeon…" Christa said as the comm deactivated. She glanced out of the window, as he saw several ships launch Zaku II's to escort a shuttle carrying engineers heading towards the Federation fleet. 'Haman… Maharaja… I'll come home… I promise it…'

"Admiral, I'm picking up something..." one of the operators said, and the Admiral turned to him.

"What is it?" she said.

The operator raised an eyebrow. "I don't know what to make of it, it's complete chaos!" he said."It's just a ton load of radio traffic from the Earth… it's just a garbled mess of reports of fighting… everywhere. It's like the war's starting all over again down there..."

"Try to find any Zeon or Fed transmissions. Even if it's the enemy, at least it's familiar."

"Admiral, there's no signals from any of our allies. A few familiar ones, but not Zeonic. We're alone."

Christa looked back into space, her eyes narrowed.

"What in the hell happened? And where are we…?"

Back on Hawaii.

D.J. was fine tuning his machine while still grumbling about being left behind when he felt a chill go up his spine, and looked up at the sky.

'Oh man, why do I get the feeling that something BIG is coming our way? And Jorn is going to love it.'

117Jorn: *Clears throat* SIEG ZEON MOTHERF**KERS!

DragonKnightRyu: Maa, maa, calm down about five decibels, some of us have hangovers.

RontheTrueFan: ...Oh great...

Patriot-112: As you can all see, the plot thickens as the Zeon inadvertently become involve. Until next time!

All: Ja Ne!